Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders Who are the Freedom Riders and what did they achieve? In my essay I will write about the Freedom Riders, who they were and what they achieved. I will write something about why and when the Freedom Riders arose and all the trouble they have been through. The Freedom Riders were a group of people who were non-violent. The people came from the group CORE, which was fighting for the civil rights. The group (Freedom Riders) was first conceived in 1947 when the CORE and the Fellowship of Reconciliation decided to organized a bus ride across state lines. They want to test a Supreme Court decision that declared segregation on interstate buses unconstitutional[1]. The decision, which came into force in 1946, was not respected in many southern states so therefore a group of people were taking action. The people who were taking action were from CORE and from Fellowship of Reconciliation. The two groups made the first freedom Ride in 1947, but unfortunately they did not make it. Both groups were non-violent and that was one of the reasons why they did not make it, because they met a lot of violence resistance'' ''on their way through the southern states. According to what had happened the groups were both keen on trying again. In the meantime two students John Lewis and Bernard Lafayette were taking the bus home from college. They sat at the front of the bus and refused to move, exactly as Rosa Park did it. After they got home they heard about what CORE and the fellowship had done a few years later and decided to do the same. Lafayette’s parents would not let him participate so John joined 12 others activists from an interracial group. 14 years later on May 4 1961 people from CORE made a new Freedom Ride. This Freedom Ride involved seven black and six white people[2]. The 13 black and white, young and old, female and male left Washington D.C. on May 4, 1961, in two separate buses. They intended to test the Supreme Court decision that declared segregation on interstate buses unconstitutional like they had done it 14 years earlier. In the first few days the Riders only met minor hostility but when they arrived in the Deep South they began to meet strong resistance. The Freedom Riders were arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina and they were attacked in Rock Hill, South Carolina. When they reached Atlanta, Georgina on May 13 1961 the Riders met with Martin Luther King Jr. After they left Georgina one of the two buses were firebombed outside the small town Anniston. The other bus made it to Birmingham, Alabama[3]. The police chief in Birmingham, Bull Corner, saw the Freedom Riders as a challenge to his authority in the city. Unfortunately the Freedom Riders arrived in Birmingham on May 14th, which is Mother’s Day. Bull Corner gave his police in the city a day off to celebrate Mother’s Day with the family. That resulted in when the Riders reached to the city where they met Ku Klux Klan there were no police to tone down the violence. Many of the Riders were brutally beaten. Despite the violence the Freedom Riders were keen on to continue with the ride. But the bus company that provided the buses was fearful of losing more buses and the drivers (which were all white men) were afraid of losing their lives. The Freedom Riders had got their national attention as they wanted so they decided to fly to New Orleans instead. But members of the Nashville Students Movement decided to continue the ride. They came to Birmingham and stepping in as “fresh troops”. The fresh Freedom Riders continued to Montgomery, Alabama where they were savagely attacked by more than 1000 white people. The indifference of the local police and the violence prompted a huge national outcry of support for the riders. That planted a pressure on President Kennedy to stop the violence[4]. The Freedom Riders continued to Jackson, Mississippi where the police let the Riders use the white section in the buses. The Freedom Riders were then arrested and moved to a city prison. On May 25th, the Riders were put on trial for refusing to obey a police officer. They were sentenced to 60 days in a state penitentiary at Parchman[5]. The Freedom Riders did not make it to New Orleans as they had planned. Freedom-Rides-Map.jpg Even though the Freedom Riders did not make it to New Orleans they achieved a lot of national attention. Over the summer the Freedom Rides have spread to train stations and airports across the South. They had even got the Attorney-General involved. And in September 1961 the Interstate Commerce Commission implemented a new ruling which was much tighter and less open to interpretation than the Supreme Court ruling of 1946. On November 1st 1961 the ruling came into force. The Freedom Riders had run into a lot trouble, but they had always been keen to continue. And it proved to be worth all the work because on November 1st 1961 there came a strict ruling about segregation in public transport. ---- [1] http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_freedom_rides/ [2] http://www.core-online.org/History/freedom%20rides.htm [3] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/rides#bottom_main [4] http://www.core-online.org/History/freedom%20rides.htm [5] http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/freedom_ride.htm